During the voting on four separate episodes of the criminal act, none of them received the mandatory minimum number of votes – 85 – of the members of the Seimas, which is required to cancel the mandate.
Since V. Gapšys was convicted of four episodes of criminal activity, the parliamentarians voted separately on the revocation of the mandate for each of them. A maximum of 75 votes were collected for one of them.
Algirdas Butkevičius, chairman of the vote counting commission, announced that 75 members of the Seimas voted for the cancellation of the mandate for two episodes, and 74 for the other two.
“On average, there were 20 once morest, 18-19 abstentions and eight-seven spoiled ballots,” he said.
A total of 122 MPs participated in the secret ballot.
In order for the mandate to be abolished, at least 85 members of the Seimas out of 141 had to vote for at least one of the four resolutions on the abolition of the mandate.
V. Gapšys was also brought from Kaunas prison, where he is serving his sentence, to the ongoing impeachment proceedings in the Seimas.
The Statute of the Seimas stipulates that the person who is subject to impeachment has the right to participate in the Seimas session himself or through his lawyer.
Since the indictment once morest V. Gapšis has entered into force, the impeachment process took place in a simplified manner, that is, without recourse to the Constitutional Court.
The Court of Appeal of Lithuania sentenced V. Gapšius to five and a half years of imprisonment for corruption crimes, he is currently serving time in Kaunas prison.
A politician is also deprived of the right to be elected or appointed to all positions elected or appointed by state or municipal institutions and institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for five years.
The court stated that Raimondas Kurlianskis, the former vice president of the concern “MG Baltic” (now “MG Grupė”), asked V. Gapšis, using his position as a member of the Seimas and his influence on fellow party members, to influence other civil servants – the then Speaker of the Seimas, members of the Labor Party faction in the Seimas, the Seimas Budget Committee and the management and members of the finance committee and the Minister of Agriculture, so that they act legally and illegally in the exercise of their powers as requested by R. Kurlianskis.
According to the court report, an illegal reward was agreed for this – disguised bribes, which, following V. Gapšius promised to influence the requested persons and he himself performed the actions requested by R. Kurlianskis, received an additional 12.1 thousand. EUR discount for the political advertising of the Labor Party and 15 thousand. EUR support to the public institution “Art and Sports Projects”.
In this case of political corruption, the Labor Party, Liberalu sajūdis, concern “MG grupė”, R. Kurlianskis, former members of the Seimas Eligijus Masiulis, Gintaras Steponavičius, Šarūnas Gustainis were found guilty.
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2024-07-11 11:41:22
